Psst, Mary, the truth is in the numbers UPDATED 10/18/17

During the President's Report at last night's school board meeting, Mary Birks was raving about Jan Klein, Director of Business. You may remember how I listed three reports from Right To Knows, where the FY ending in August 2017, were changed in three consecutive reports.

From Financials ending 09/30/17 

From Financials ending 08/31/17
From Financials ending 07/31/17 updated 10/11/17

Members of the community, as well as a board member have called for an outside audit. At 18:10 time stamp October 17, 2017 school board meeting video, Mary Birks quotes John Irving. 

“Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true.”

But at 24:19 of the October 17, 2017 school board meeting video, Mary reported,

Harassment and defamation of character have no place with our professional staff and will not go unanswered.

Here's the thing, Mary. It isn't harassment and defamation of character if the financials are constantly changing. There is also the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. You said it yourself that there were over 40 Right To Knows filed since September. Do you know why so many RTKs were filed? Watch yourself in action at the 40:22 time stamp. A resident asked questions and you were not going to do a back and forth with him.

Birks didn't stop there. Watch how she deals with the same resident mentioned above at the 56:26 time stamp. We were told that Jo Posti was going to make a presentation on the Capital Campaign "reset." Nick asked if we were going to see the presentation. All Birks said was, "Nope." What a nasty woman! 

Mary, the last commenter was absolutely correct. At 1:02:25, we have the right to express our opinions and we are very upset with how we, the public, are being treated at these meetings. 

So before you send your lawyers here to shut me down, let me just say that you are doing nothing to garner votes. Your attitude sucks. Having a Candidates Forum with just your slate present is despicable. How you preside at a meeting is unbelievable. Remember, Karma is a bitch.

Update October 18, 2017 9:02 AM Watch School Board Director Hugh Beal's reaction after Mary Birks shut down Mt. Lebanon resident, Nick Meduho. Also, please read what Mike Riemer, Stephen Strotmeyer, and Aviva Diamond say about community participation.

Friends of Mt. Lebanon Education

21 hrs · 

US Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren said: “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments.” Pennsylvania’s system of more than 500 locally-elected school boards epitomizes participatory government. In Mt. Lebanon, our residents elect the board of school directors empowered to decide on educational and financial matters with community needs, values, and expectations in mind. Community participation in that decision-making process should be encouraged. School directors are reflective of our constituency, and the ability to engage in open discussion with residents is critical to effective, accountable, transparent and ethical public school governance. Our residents should be made to feel welcome at all public meetings, whether as observers or participants. Future encouragement of residents to express personal viewpoints, whether in agreement or opposition to the school board needs to be cultivated and facilitated.

Ultimately, as voters, you have the opportunity to indicate your support for candidates that value a variety of views within Mt. Lebanon.

This November 7th, if you value representative democracy at the most grassroots level, please vote for Mike Riemer (in both the 4-year & 2-year seats), Stephen Strotmeyer, and Aviva Diamond. Our slate will work to restore a willingness to engage in civil discussions with our community as they pertain to our educational framework.